1 Kings 20:27-30

27 When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.

28 The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

29 For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.

30 The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them. And Ben-Hadad fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

1 Kings 20:27-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 20

This chapter relates the siege of Samaria by the king of Syria, and his insolent demand of Ahab's wives, children, and riches, 1Ki 20:1-12, the sally made out upon him, at the direction of the prophet, and the route made of the Syrian army, 1Ki 20:13-21, the return of the Syrian army the next year, when there was a pitched battle between them and Israel, in which the former were entirely defeated, 1Ki 20:22-30, the peace Ahab made with the king of Syria, 1Ki 20:31-34, and the reproof one of the sons of the prophets gave him for it, which made him very uneasy, 1Ki 20:35-43.

Cross References

• 1. Judges 6:6; S 1 Samuel 13:6
• 2. S ver 23
• 3. ver 13; S Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 16:19-21
• 4. S ver 26
• 5. Psalms 62:4; Isaiah 26:21; Isaiah 30:13
• 6. 1 Kings 22:25; 2 Chronicles 18:24